1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate in general to failure management. More specifically, the embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for managing data pertaining to failure of network devices.
2. Description of the Background Art
Network devices are devices that are associated with the activities of a network. The network devices can develop faults that result in their malfunctioning. These faults can be due to the failure of hardware components of the network device or the failure of the software used in the network device. For example, a network device such as a router may malfunction due to a memory parity error caused by an extended operation at an out of range temperature. A user of the network device may report the failure to the manufacturer of the network device. For example, a user of the network device such as a modem would lodge a compliant with the manufacturer of the modem if it malfunctions.
Generally, the complaint is made to a customer support center of the manufacturer. For example, the user can call the customer support center and lodge a complaint about the malfunction or failure of the network device. The manufacturer may replace the network device or may repair the failure of the network device. Further, a failure analysis team investigates the complaint and attempts to diagnose the cause of the failure. However, in order to effectively perform failure analysis, the failure analysis team requires information pertaining to the failure. This information is required for a comprehensive analysis of the causes of the failure. This information can be data about the failure, the state of the device at the time of the failure, or the state of the device preceding the failure. For example, the failure analysis team may receive an error message that indicates type of failure of the network device. The failure analysis team can use this data to diagnose the cause of failure. Moreover, the failure analysis team can use this information to more effectively recognize trends in the causes of failure of the network devices. Further, there is a direct connection between the amount and accuracy of the information available and the effectiveness of the analysis of the failure of the network device.
According to a conventional technique, information pertaining to the failure of the network device is reported by the user to the customer support center. Thereafter, the information is provided to the failure analysis team by the customer support center. The information can be provided by phone or sending an e-mail. However, the user making the complaint to the customer support center may be unwilling to provide all the information. Further, the user may not be able to provide all the relevant information about the failure of the network device due to lack of knowledge, lack of time, or user's inability to capture the information from the network device.
In another conventional technique, information pertaining to the failure of the network device is provided to the failure analysis team by the manufacturer's support staff. The support staff collects the information from the users manually and provides it to the failure analysis team. However, this technique may be costly for the manufacturer, as it requires a dedicated support staff.